Midnight Torment: (Midnight Pack Wolf Shifter Romance - Book 3) Read online

  MIDNIGHT TORMENT

  MIDNIGHT PACK – BOOK 3

  BY

  L. Ann

  MIDNIGHT TORMENT

  Copyright © 2019 by L. Ann.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by RebecaCovers

  Edited by Margot Mostert

  First Edition: August 2019

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  DEDICATION

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  EPILOGUE

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  My Witches, my amazing ARC team, my Literati – the love and support you have shown for this series and the Pack means more than you’ll ever know.

  Twenty-One Years Ago

  A COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF PASSED THROUGH THE SHIFTERS HOLDING VIGIL, outside the bedroom door, at the baby’s first cry. The cub hadn’t been due for another month and, had there been any complications while the couple was visiting the Midnight Pack, their Alpha would have been held responsible.

  When Allesandro Bianchi, Alpha of the Colombo Pack, burst through the bedroom door and into the hallway beyond, and shouted, “I have a beautiful new daughter!” to all those waiting, the Midnight Pack cheered.

  Conrad Jacobs, Midnight’s Alpha, was the first to move forward and congratulate his oldest friend. “And does our new beauty have a name?”

  Allesandro’s bearded face split into a wide grin. “Avalina Talia Bianchi!”

  Conrad pulled Allesandro into a hug. “You honour my mate.”

  “Without your mate, mine and my new daughter would not be breathing,” Allesandro responded. His face grew serious. “But there is more. You must come and see for yourself.” He led the Midnight Alpha into the bedroom where three females bustled around doing what needed to be done to make the new mother and her cub comfortable.

  Conrad spotted his mate, Talia, leaning over the bed as she placed a wriggling bundle into the waiting arms of the Colombo Alpha’s mate, Caterina.

  “She will be as beautiful as her Pack-Sister,” he heard his mate murmur.

  “It’s a shame your oldest is not here to meet her,” Conrad said.

  “She is on the verge of her first shift, it would not have been wise for her to travel so close to it.” Allesandro drew Conrad over to the bed. “Where is your son?”

  “Which one?” His question was rich with amusement. “The twins are likely getting up to mischief somewhere in the Sanctuary.”

  “No, I mean your oldest.”

  “Cormac is probably in the library.” He watched as Allesandro dropped a kiss onto Caterina’s forehead and, with gentle fingers, he folded back the covers which wrapped his new-born daughter.

  “Look.” He directed the Midnight Alpha’s attention down to the baby and swept a finger over her cheek.

  Conrad bent closer and frowned at the small mark he could see on the back of her neck. “Is that …?”

  “The very same mark,” Allesandro replied. “It must be a sign. Our two families will one day become one.”

  In the library, the young male Shifter sat upright, jerked awake by the snarl of the wolf inside his head. He lifted a hand and touched his face, half-expecting to feel fur instead of skin.

  When had he fallen asleep at the desk?

  He’d been reading about an old treaty between the American Packs when …

  Wait! He hadn’t fallen asleep. He’d felt a sharp pain, heard a cry, and then a jolt of what felt like a thousand volts of electricity had shot through his body, rendering him unconscious.

  Cormac pushed himself to his feet and stumbled over to the window. He could feel his wolf close to the surface, felt it moving restlessly beneath his skin and wasn’t convinced he hadn’t half-shifted into a hybrid form. Peering at his reflection in the glass, he touched his face again to assure himself he still looked human.

  “Mac? Mac?” The combined voices of his ten-year-old twin brothers distracted him, and he turned to greet them as they crashed through the door of the library. Five years younger than him, twice as loud and full of energy, they bounded toward him.

  “The baby …” began one.

  “… has arrived,” finished the other.

  They skidded to a stop in front of him and traded confused glances.

  “What happened …”

  “… to your eyes?”

  Cormac frowned. “What do you mean?” He reached up to touch the skin around first one, then the other. They felt fine.

  “They’re …”

  “… silver.”

  “You mean grey.”

  The twins shook their heads. “Nope,” they chorused together.

  Three Days Ago

  “Do you want her moved to the bed?” Chase asked.

  Cormac looked down at the unconscious female on his floor and sighed faintly. She looked like a rag-doll with her filthy dress and thin, dirty arms on display.

  Did he really want her in his bed? Who knew what was living in that rat’s nest of hair?

  “No, leave her where she is. She seems comfortable enough.”

  Isabella’s sharp intake of breath made him roll his eyes.

  Predictable female.

  “Let me guess,” he directed at her. “You’d like to complain about that?”

  “She’s hurt, Cormac. The least you could do is make her comfortable.”

  Cormac pointed toward the neat pile of blankets on the floor where she had been found. “She decided to sleep on the floor. I’m simply honouring her wishes.”

  “She also tried to kill herself. Are you going to honour that wish as well?”

  “Careful, Isabella,” he murmured.

  “I’ll leave painkillers for when she wakes,” Chase said, glancing unhappily from his Alpha to Isabella and back again. “Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”

  “Check on Cassie. Shaun, choosing to sever their connection as abruptly as he did, has upset her.” His attention moved to Isabella. “And you go and do whatever it is you do when you’re not looking for ways to make my life difficult.”

  He turned his back, dismissing them both, expecting them to follow his bidding without argument. He knew they were trading glances behind his back, he could feel Isabella’s need to argue with him, but thought Chase would be able to make her leave without further comment. A
long silent minute passed, and then he heard the door shut quietly.

  Cormac shook his head. That female was going to be the death of him. She didn’t want him, he certainly didn’t want her, but she refused to accept that they could find another mutually acceptable way of moving forward. Isabella was convinced they needed to bow to her father’s desire to connect their two families through mating. And, no matter how many times he told her otherwise, she was convinced becoming his mate was the only way he could help her find her mother. Hopefully, Chase would help redirect her interests, and they could find an agreeable way out of the idiocy she was insisting they continue with.

  The girl on the floor moaned, the sound invading his thoughts, and he crouched down beside her to lift one of her hands. Dried blood coated her palms, her fingernails were broken and short with a layer of dirt caked beneath them. His skin crawled at the thought of how long it must have been since she’d last bathed. But that feeling was nothing compared to the anger of his wolf, of his Alpha aspect, at the condition of her body.

  She was underweight, possibly malnourished. He knew that from their very first interaction outside the Cooper house when he’d had to lift her off her feet to bring her to the Sanctuary. Her skin was pale, telling its own story of very little time spent outside beneath the sun. His fingers circled her wrist carefully, noting the feel of delicate bones he knew he could crush with barely a thought. Turning her arm over, he stroked his thumb across her inner wrist, and felt a small frisson of electricity as her pulse trembled and fluttered beneath his touch.

  He wasn’t sure if she had missed the veins in her wrist accidentally, or purposely ensured she cut in a place where it would take longer to bleed out, but whether she had intended to die or not, it was still the action of someone desperate. His wolf believed she had tried to kill herself, that her actions were those of someone who had run out of viable options and wanted to die. Cormac’s more cynical half thought it was simply a cry for attention.

  No matter which was correct, he knew from talking to Rosalind Dawson, any female in the Cooper household was going to be desperate.

  The girl moaned again, her lips curving downwards. She rolled sideways and he released her arm, watching as she drew her knees up to her chest. The movement drew the tattered dress she was wearing up her thigh, and Cormac’s attention was caught and held by the faint silvery marks snaking from mid-thigh and up beneath the material.

  Were they scars?

  Cormac reached out and gently pushed the dress up further, following the marks with his eyes. He ran a fingertip along one, feeling the slightly raised skin and frowned.

  Yes, definitely scars.

  Curious, he pulled the material away, revealing the full length of them, as well as baring the swell of her bottom. Ignoring her state of undress, Cormac examined the shape and length of the scars. They were faint, faded over time, which suggested they hadn’t happened recently.

  Were they the only ones or were there more?

  With a gentleness and care Chase and Isabella would have been surprised to observe, he slid his arms beneath her unconscious form and lifted her. She whimpered quietly, and his brows pulled together at the sound. Striding across the room, he gently laid her on top of the covers on his bed and pressed a hand against her knees when she tried, once again, to curl up into a tight ball.

  “Sorry, little wolf,” he murmured. “I have questions I need answered.”

  He found the zip for her dress and tugged it down, peeling the material down her arms and off her body.

  “That needs burning,” he muttered down at her unconscious form and threw the dress toward the door. Easing down on to the mattress beside her, he hooked a hand around her hip and rolled her onto her stomach.

  The breath hissed between his teeth.

  She’d been whipped.

  Four long marks marred her back – right shoulder blade to left hip, left shoulder blade to right hip. As well as those, there was an angry red mark near the base of her spine.

  Cormac leaned closer, his fingers stroking over it. At first glance, he thought she’d been stabbed, not deep enough to damage any internal organs or sever nerves in her spine, but enough to draw blood and leave a scar.

  Closer inspection made him realise the cut was more surgical and precise. That one was recent and still healing. If she had been awake, he would have put money on it causing her pain when he touched it.

  Rolling her onto her back, he continued his appraisal. No marks on her upper arms, shoulders or breasts, but he could see faint bruises on her stomach and thighs.

  She was too thin—her concave stomach and the visibility of her hip bones attested to that—not a good condition for a Shifter to be in. And he was certain she was a wolf Shifter. He lifted his eyes, remembering the collar around her throat.

  Had she ever Shifted?

  He thought not, otherwise most of those scars would have healed long ago. Bending over her, he ran a finger around the lip of the collar, frowned at the vibration which buzzed along the tip of his finger. The collar was a tight fit, and he could barely wedge a fingertip beneath it.

  How long had she been wearing the thing?

  She moaned, attempted to shift away, and Cormac rested his other hand on her chest to hold her in place while he searched for the lock mechanism. Finding the indent, he pushed his fingernail into it and was rewarded with a soft click and the collar loosened. He tossed it to one side, grimacing at the bruising which circled her throat where it had been pressed against her skin.

  “What have you done?” Her horrified cry brought his gaze up to her face. She stared at him out of stricken dark eyes, one hand lifting to clutch at her throat. “Put it back!”

  “You don’t need it.”

  “Put it back!”

  “MAC?” ASHER’S HEAD APPEARED AROUND THE STUDY DOOR.

  Cormac looked over the top of his laptop and waved the wolf Shifter into the room. “Is the female causing problems again?”

  “No.” Asher stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “But the town sheriff just showed up and asked to speak to you.”

  “Well, isn’t that coincidental,” Cormac said dryly. He rose to his feet and walked around the desk. “Can you make sure my bedroom door is secure? I’d rather not have the female appearing in the hallway while I’m speaking to the man who may well be her uncle. That wouldn’t look good, at all.”

  Asher snorted. “Part of me would like to witness that conversation.”

  Cormac shrugged. “The day is young and the last couple of months have taught us that anything is possible in this town.” He walked to the door. “Where is he?”

  “I left him outside. Jaden is keeping him occupied.”

  “Then let’s go out there and greet our unexpected visitor.” Cormac exited the study, Asher close on his heels and they walked toward the front of the house.

  Cormac could hear Jaden’s deep voice talking about the surrounding forest and how peaceful the area was compared with downtown Los Angeles. The sheriff’s responses were abrupt and short, making it clear he wasn’t interested in what Jaden had to say. Cormac stopped just inside the main door and examined the man standing beyond it, sifting through the things he’d heard about him.

  Shaun had been told the sheriff was Sam Cooper’s uncle, which made him Jeremiah Cooper’s brother. If Damien had been telling the truth about the female being Jeremiah Cooper’s daughter —and Cormac saw no reason to believe he had lied about it—that meant he was their captive female’s uncle as well.

  Was he also a Hunter?

  Surely he would be aware of his family’s activities? It could even be the reason behind his career choice.

  Cormac took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of everything around him. Jaden seemed unconcerned, content in the knowledge his Alpha was near. Asher was curious, wondering why the sheriff was there. And then there was the sheriff himself—he was uneasy, nervous. Cormac could see the sheen of sweat on the man’s upper lip, smel
l his body odour beneath the scented deodorant he’d sprayed hours earlier.

  He let his foot scrape purposely against the wood of the deck as he walked outside and watched Jaden and the sheriff turn toward him. He heard Asher retreat back inside, to check on the girl like he had asked.

  “Sheriff,” Cormac greeted the man.

  “You must be Cormac Jacobs.” The sheriff started forward, one hand held out in greeting.

  Cormac looked at it and slowly lifted his own arm, clasping the sheriff’s hand in his. He masked a smile at the way the other male tried to hide a wince when he squeezed just a little too hard.

  “What brings you out here, Sheriff?”

  “A couple of things. I thought I’d come by and introduce myself, see if you needed anything and check how you’re settling in.”

  “Greene Valley has been very welcoming,” Cormac replied.

  “Yes.” The sheriff paused, and his eyes shifted to just behind Cormac’s shoulder.

  Cormac didn’t move. He knew Gemma had appeared in the doorway, could smell her scent as she moved closer.

  “Ms. Duncan.” The sheriff raised his voice in greeting, and Cormac heard the soft tread of her shoe as Gemma reluctantly descended the steps to greet him. “I’d heard talk you and your sister were spending a lot of time up here.”

  Cormac’s head tilted slightly at the tone in the sheriff’s voice when he referenced Cassie.

  Was that because she had been dating his nephew, or was something else at play here?

  “We do,” Gemma’s reply sounded relaxed, but Cormac knew better. She came to a stop beside him. “Deacon’s driving me and Cassie into town to finish packing up the house,” she told him.

  Cormac inclined his head, his eyes never leaving the sheriff.

  “I suppose that’s one way of getting your childhood home back,” the law-enforcement officer remarked.

  Cormac felt Gemma stiffen beside him. Reaching out, he laid a hand on her arm.

  ~Don’t respond,~ he sent at her, and she threw him a startled look before quickly masking it.